Please help the Iditarod dogs by sending protest emails to
race supporters. These dogs are helpless victims of profoundly inhumane
treatment and cannot speak for themselves. What happens to them during the
Iditarod includes death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers,
bloody diarrhea, lung damage, ruptured discs, viral diseases and pneumonia.

For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of
suffering. Throughout this eight to 16-day competition, Iditarod personnel
encourage mushers to race diseased dogs. Instead of pulling sick dogs from
the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to
keep them running.

Veterinarians also work to help the mushers before the
Iditarod begins. Although the dogs are often sick, veterinarians allow them
to start the race anyway. One chief Iditarod veterinarian even published a
musher/veterinary handbook advising mushers on how to avoid having
prohibited substances detected in pre-race veterinary checks.

Please speak for the dogs by sending Iditarod supporters
protest emails. The 2007 Iditarod sponsors, musher sponsors, race promoters
and business members are listed below. Emails are first given in a group and
then individually under the sample letter. Email addresses with semi-colons
and commas in group form can be found on
http://www.helpsleddogs.org/sponsors.htm at the bottom of the page.

ALL EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR IDITAROD
SUPPORTERS - for easy sending, copy and paste as a bunch into your "Blind
Copy" box. You may want to divide the block into several groups and email
each one separately:

I protest your organization's support of the
Iditarod dog sled race. For the dogs, this barbaric event is a
bottomless pit of suffering. What happens to them during the
Iditarod includes death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding
ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, ruptured discs, viral diseases
and pneumonia. Please end your involvement in this cruel race.

In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150
miles, which is the approximate distance between Miami, Florida and
New York City. USA Today sports columnist Jon Saraceno called the
Iditarod "a travesty of grueling proportions" and "Ihurtadog." Fox
sportscaster Jim Rome called it "I-killed-a-dog." Orlando Sentinel
sports columnist George Diaz said the race is "a barbaric ritual"
and "an illegal sweatshop for dogs."

Please visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website
http://www.helpsleddogs.org and be sure to read the quotes on
http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm . All the material on the
site is true and verifiable.

Throughout this eight to 16-day competition,
Iditarod personnel encourage mushers to race diseased dogs. Instead
of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give
them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running.

Veterinarians also work to help the mushers before
the Iditarod begins. Although the dogs are often sick, veterinarians
allow them to start the race anyway. One chief Iditarod veterinarian
even published a musher/veterinary handbook advising mushers on how
to avoid having prohibited substances detected in pre-race
veterinary checks.

At least 130 dogs have died in the Iditarod. No
one knows how many dogs die after this tortuous ordeal or during
training.

On average, 52 percent of the dogs who start the
race do not make it across the finish line. According to a report
published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine, of those who do cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A
report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said
that 61 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have ulcers
versus zero percent pre-race.

Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan
resident for over 40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into
submission:

"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You
don't just whisper into their ears, 'OK, stand there until I tell
you to run like the devil.' They understand one thing: a beating.
These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are
trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what?
They are all lying." -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's
column.

Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted
dogs, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in
the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those
who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the
head, dragged or clubbed to death. "Dogs are clubbed with baseball
bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses....."
wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade
Newspaper (March, 2000).

Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in
USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far
worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing
weight. Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their
death."